


I am Beautiful

by battleshidge (Amiria_Raven)



Series: author under the influence [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cute, Fluff, M/M, Open Ending, drive-thru au, for claire bc she prompted, klance, the drive-thru au no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 22:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amiria_Raven/pseuds/battleshidge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(no matter what they say)</p>
            </blockquote>





	I am Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

  * For [miraculousstorytelling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraculousstorytelling/gifts).



> I wrote this drunk at Claire's request. Claire ily I hope this meets all your expectations and more.
> 
> This has not been edited/beta'd and honestly probably won't be. Hope you enjoy!

Working a drive-thru wasn’t always the most entertaining thing. Lance McClain had had his fair share of the job, and he’d only been working there for a few months now. Everything was _Welcome to Altea’s! Can I take your order?_ and _Would you like fries with that?_ and he was so over it.

It seemed like almost every day since he started working at the _Altea_ fast food chain had been just the same old thing. He asked for orders, accepted money, and passed food out the window. The daily grind, as some of the older employees often joked about. But Lance wasn’t made for that kind of monotony. He liked a little bit of _flair_ in his everyday life, thank you very much. And while the moments he got to see Allura, his manager and the boss’s daughter, were fantastic, he couldn’t quite shake how boring the rest of the job was.

_Can I take your order? Would you like fries with that? Can I interest you in the seasonal Altea Freeze? Are you interested in adding an extra order of tater tots today?_

Every single day was just like more of the same, and after about four months, Lance was done with it. And that’s why he started turning the radio up between drive-thru orders. He could entertain both himself _and_ his fellow coworkers by obnoxiously singing along and dancing to any song he knew. It was something Lance did quite often, in fact. He enjoyed the limelight more than he should have, and his coworkers seemed to enjoy the entertainment.

He couldn’t count the number of times he had sang Smash Mouth’s _All Star_ to the workers that were present, or the times he’d belted out the radio version of _Let it Go_. All Lance knew was that he was _fucking bored_ , and the radio helped alleviate that boredom.

And that _Hips Don’t Lie_ , and his were _fantastic._

Coran, the assistant manager, especially seemed to enjoy when Lance did...well, _Lance_. He said it seemed to promote employee camaraderie, and he fully supported it. So Lance took that to mean he could sing and dance whenever he pleased, though Allura sometimes seemed a little peeved by it.

In those moments, he was even more pressed to show off for her. After all, the princess of their little fast food establishment was practically a goddess. Even if he failed every time, Lance would probably never tire of _trying_ to impress her. Even if she kind of had the hots for the sexiest cashier— _Takashi Shirogane_ , of course even Lance could admit that he was _hot,_ especially since Lance was a raging bisexual—Lance still dropped pickup lines every chance he got.

It just so happened that Lance was in one of these moods on this particular day. It was a slow morning, and Lance was turning off his microphone between customers and singing along to all the songs he knew. And, considering that Lance loved music, that meant he was loudly and boisterously singing along to nearly every song on the radio.

The only station that had decent reception that morning was a weird soft rock station. Lance had already gone through _Boulevard of Broken Dreams_ and _How to Save a Life_ and _Save the Last Dance_ and he was raring to go. Unfortunately, he had a stream of customers that prevented him from singing along and dancing to _Fall for You_ and he was very _bitter_. It was one of his songs, despite its age, and he never missed a chance to sing along if he could help it.

Another song started as he addressed his last customer—at least for now.

“Welcome to _Altea’s_!” Lance used his peppiest voice. “What can I get you today? Our number six, the _Yalmor_ , is on sale today for the great price of five dollars! It’s a bacon cheeseburger with our special _Altea’s_ sauce!”

“Yeah...not today,” the customer replied. His tone was light, and he chuckled a little. “Can I get a number four with an Altean Freeze?”

“Of course you can! And you know that substituting a Freeze for a soda is—”

“Forty-five cents extra,” the customer’s voice replied, and another laugh followed. Lance couldn’t help but chuckle as well—this new customer was a breath of fresh air after the _demon_ that had been right before him. He seemed fairly patient, despite cutting Lance’s spiel short, and not at all like the soccer mom that needed her coffee _immediately_.

“Yup!” Lance beamed. “Then your order will be seven forty-two at the first window! Thank you for choosing _Altea’s_ today!”

“Thanks,” the voice said, chuckling.

Lance grinned to himself. Maybe this day, which had seemed so boring at first, would turn out okay. After all, whoever this dude in the drive-thru was seemed a lot more polite than the soccer mom who had yet to pull forward and get her coffee. Honestly, Lance half expected her to pull away and curse them for slow or shitty service as she drove by, because she sounded as if she was in an awful hurry. Customers like her were the ones he hated most.

He was at the food window, though, and happily waiting for people to pay and come through his line. He had been turning off the mic all morning, until the customer bell had gone off, in order to sing along to his radio, but this customer had been the first to break the monotony he’d been tasked with since he’d started the morning shift for the first time...three hours ago.

Okay, Lance was new to mornings.

_And_ to waking up early.

So it was natural that he was singing the songs on the radio partially to keep himself awake and partially to entertain his coworkers. In fact, he was getting into a rendition of Christina Aguilera’s _Beautiful_ , with lots of heart and feeling, and his fellow morning shift people were absolutely loving it.

“ _I am beautiful_  
No matter what they say  
Words can't bring me down  
I am beautiful  
In every single way—”

Before Lance could finish the chorus, a dry voice sounded through his headset, though it was admittedly amused, “I’m sure you are.”

He nearly choked on his words and then checked. The headset was definitely _not_ turned off, and he had totally serenaded the polite guy behind the demonic soccer mom. That was _not_ how his first morning shift was supposed to start, _thank you very much_ , and Lance was slightly mortified.

Lance could barely pay attention to the three people that he had to give food and drink to before the one he’d serenaded. The soccer mom didn’t even faze him when she complained about the slow morning service—

“—I’m sorry ma’am, yes I know, we’re understaffed right now, we’re doing our best, of course you can call the manager—”

—and then a slightly worse-for-wear red car pulled up, and as soon as the driver said “Hey,” Lance recognized the voice.

“Uh, h-hey, you ordered the, uh, number four?” he barely managed to force out, “With a Freeze?”

After a moment of silence, the man in the car grinned. “That’s me. And you’re the one who serenaded me at the speaker after I ordered, aren’t you?”

Lance flushed. “O-of course not!” he protested, passing the bag of food out the window but pointedly refusing to make eye contact with his customer.

His cheeks were _burning_ , why the _hell_ would he actually meet this guy’s eyes? And, to top it all off, this guy had to be the hottest guy to come through the line _all day_ , which didn’t help Lance’s situation at all.

Part of him harbored a slight hope that this customer was into guys.

Another part of Lance scolded him for thinking that way, but it wasn’t enough to prevent him from writing his number on the receipt he passed through the window later with the message, _if you want another serenade, feel free to give me a ring!_

He didn’t expect for that hot guy, despite his out-of-style mullet, to leave his debit card on accident.

* * *

 

When he got back home after his night shift, Keith Kogane couldn’t help but remember the peppy guy from the drive-thru that morning. It was very rare that he encountered someone who was so... _positive_...during the day, or at least in those few hours that he was conscious, since he worked nights, and it was...refreshing.

He ate his sandwich with mild amusement, unable to forget his serenade, and then went to throw the trash away, but something gave him pause. He fished around in the bag until he pulled out his receipt, and then double-checked his wallet to find his card.

He blinked and stared, briefly, when he had his wallet in hand.

_Where the hell is my card?_ he asked himself silently, biting back the panic. He closed his eyes and thought back, but the only place he could even remember using it was in the drive-thru at _Altea’s_ just a few hours earlier, where he’d been serenaded by a rather cute employee that seemed incredibly embarrassed over what he’d done. He remembered handing his card over and remembered the cute guy—his nametag said _Lance_? at least that’s what he thought it said—fumbling with it for a minute as he pretended that he hadn’t forgotten to turn his microphone off.

Keith couldn’t remember getting his card back.

He’d remembered checking for the receipt, which was in the bag, and putting his wallet away, but he didn’t remember his card going back in the usual slot.

“ _Shit_ ,” he cursed, trying to think of any other possible thing. But at last, Keith settled on, “I must have left it at the drive-thru.”

It was early. And by early, Keith meant it was almost noon. Considering he went to work at eleven at night and got off at seven, it was nearing the time he tried to go to sleep. Before he could do that, though, he needed to either find out where his debit card was or cancel the damn thing, but he wasn’t too keen on that since it would be the third one in the last two months.

He squeezed the _Altea’s_ receipt in his hand, bitterness covering his semi-pleasant memories of the morning, before he looked down to see the scrawl across the back of the paper clutched in his hand.

Curious, Keith spread the receipt out on the table in front of him.

It had all the usual stuff, of course. The itemized list of what he’d ordered, the price, the taxes, and his total. It had the name of his drive-thru server—Lance M.—but it also had a scrawled message across it.

_if you want another serenade, feel free to give me a ring!_

He stared at it blankly, and Keith started to consider the possibility.

That guy had been pretty cute, and Keith wasn’t opposed to having his number. The digits written on his receipt were tempting for that reason alone. But...if he could subtly manage to set up both another meeting that evening _and_ a way to return his card, Keith could kill two birds with one stone…

...and while that might have been a horrible way to go about a first “date”, Keith found himself shooting a text to the number anyway.

**_Hey, this is Keith. I’m the guy you serenaded in the drivethrough._ **

After a few moments, he sent another.

**_I left my debit card with you. Bring it and yourself to the Voltron Café tonight for a date and we’ll call it even?_ **

It was three hours later when he finally received the overenthusiastic reply that made him smile.

**_OMG I didn’t think you’d actually text OF COURSE I’LL BE THERE_ **

And a few seconds later Keith received, **_I am so glad I hadn’t told management about your card yet they’d never let me return it if I hadn’t holy shit but plz don’t tell them that?!_**

Stifling a smile, Keith sent, **_I won’t tell them. Is 7 fine?_**

And a few seconds later, he received, **_7’s perfect!_**

**Author's Note:**

> HMU on tumblr at [battleshidge](http://battleshidge.tumblr.com/) or on my main at [panda013](http://panda013.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
